


The Blood of the Covenant

by Magykal777



Series: Woven in My Soul [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, Magic, Not Really Character Death, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:53:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24512632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magykal777/pseuds/Magykal777
Summary: There were many times that Tony thought he was going to die today. This was almost one of them.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Woven in My Soul [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1758688
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	The Blood of the Covenant

_He wasn’t scared of dying._

That was the first thought that crossed his mind as he landed on the roof of his penthouse and stepped down off the platform. It wasn’t entirely a strange thought for him, Tony observed as the machines sprung to life around him. People like Pepper might claim it was because of depression (and they’d probably be right), but it just didn’t scare him. 

Loki was standing on the deck of the building as the pieces of his iron suit were removed from his body looking smugly pleased at how his plan was working.

When he noticed he had a visitor, the god was the first to speak as he asked mockingly, “please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity.”

Tony copied Loki’s steps as they met inside the penthouse, “uh...actually, I'm planning to threaten you.”

“You should have left your armor on for that,” the god commented.

Tony wasn’t afraid of dying. After everything, death just wasn’t something that scared him anymore (there were other things, certainly, as he’d find out later that day, but dying wasn’t one of them.)

Of course, if his plan worked, he wouldn’t have to even worry about that possibility.

It was still something to keep in mind though.

“Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage and I’m willing to take my chances. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?”

He moved to the familiar space of the bar and reached up to grab one of the bottles.

“Stalling me won't change anything.”

“No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one,” he poured the liquor into a clear glass.

“The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?”

“The Avengers,” he answered simply.

It wasn’t a common household name yet so Loki’s confusion could be excused, “it's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. `Earth's Mightiness Heroes' type of thing.”

The god seemed unimpressed, “oh, them. Yes, I've met them.”

Tony shrugged, taking a sip from his glass, “yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demi-God; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and an invincible woman and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them.”

Loki shrugged, apparently unconcerned, “that was the plan.”

“Not a great plan,” Tony said cheerfully, subtly sliding on the bracelet that held the recall for his suit, “when they come- and they will- they'll come for you.”

“I have an army.”

“We have a Hulk,” Tony countered, a strange note of pride in his voice- for the man behind said being. He moved away from the bar to face off with the Asgardian directly.

“I thought the beast had wandered off.”

 _It was probably a good thing the Doc wasn’t here_ Tony reflected, since that particular comment probably wouldn’t have sat well wither her.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and answered, “you're missing the point. There's no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it.”

Loki seemed unimpressed by his speech and calmly walked up to him, “how will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?” the god’s scepter landed firmly on his chest with a slight _ping_ from reacting with the metal.

He looked confused and the staff landed on his chest again with a _ping_ , “it should work.”

Tony shrugged easily, “well, performance issues. Five times out of ten, etcetera.”

In that moment, Loki looked like he was going to lunge forward and fling him across the room.

But, he didn’t.

To Tony’s surprise, a sudden realization crossed the god’s face which turned into an ugly snarl, “you carry the Midgardian virus. That’s why this isn’t working” he waved the staff around.

It was Tony’s turn to look confused, “what?” how could Loki know about the Palladium poisoning?

There was a terrible anger in Loki’s eyes as he bit out, “the marks, the bonds. No Asgardian carries them, but mortal _filth_ has gained the privilege of this power.”

Without warning, Loki’s hand shot out and grabbed Tony’s wrist- luckily, the one not covered by the bracelet.

Panic swept through him as cool fingers closed around his skin. Death, he was fine with but not this.

 _Anything_ but this.

If he was a weaker man, less proud, he probably would’ve begun to plead for clemency, but instead he kept his thoughts to himself- _no, no, no, no-_ in a continuous chant.

“Woah- hey, Reindeer Games, easy,” Tony said easily, refusing to- even for a moment- show weakness, “didn't your mother ever teach you manners? Grabbing is rude.”

The god ignored him and flipped his hand around to bare his wrist and stopped in surprise, “but- I thought-“

His circular chant suddenly came to a crashing halt inside of his head.

 _Of course_.

How could he have forgotten?

For the first time since he’d made the decision, he was _glad_ that something had finally gone right. There were no Words, no indication that he had a soulmate- the technology he’d put in place nearly twenty years ago was going its job.

“I don’t understand,” Loki growled in frustration, “ _all_ Midgardians have them.”

“Hey, what did I say?” Tony asked, trying to pull the attention off of his bare wrist, “performance issues, you know?”

“It doesn’t matter,” the god said decisively, and his scepter came sweeping down towards his wrist.

The chant resumed.

_(No, no, no, no, no, no-)_

The moment the tip of the blade touched his skin, Tony thought his life was going to be over. Not in death, exactly, but there would be no point in living anymore.

Sure, he’d blocked the connection to his soulmates, but that didn’t mean he wanted to _break_ it completely. At least with technology, there was a chance of going back.

But, instead of the bonds breaking as Loki clearly expected them to do, they did something else.

They _flared_.

In the originally blank expanse of skin, a bright flash of blue on his right and green on his left came and went as quickly as it appeared but the point had been made

“I don’t get it,” Loki growled, looking at the scepter in disgust, “they should be broken now.”

Tony struggled to keep the relief out of his voice, “they’re not?”

“It doesn’t matter,” the god said again, “if I can’t rid you of _them,_ I’ll rid the world of _you_ “ and he _did_ send Tony flying across the room.

This time, though, the thought of death didn’t cross his mind. Not only was his plan going to work (having prompted his AI under his breath to jump into action), but he knew that, at least in this moment, he wasn’t going to be dying by the hands of _this_ god.

Even as Loki grabbed him by the throat again and lifted him up, saying, “you will all fall before me,” Tony knew that the following decent from the Tower wasn’t going to kill him.

Other things might- or would- but not _this_.


End file.
